Law Commons^™

International Gas Outlook And Implications For Developing Tanzania’S Gas Projects, Nicolas Maennling, Perrine Toledano, Thomas Mitro

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In the frame of its partnership with Uongozi – Tanzania, CCSI drafted a brief that reviews recent international gas developments, the outlook in this regard and implications for the development of proposed offshore gas projects in Tanzania. As the country aims to benefit from its gas discoveries by increasing its domestic gas use, it also outlines some of the trade-offs and considerations that need to be taken into account when negotiating the domestic gas allocation.

Ccsi Submission To Un Special Rapporteur On Extreme Poverty Re: United States Country Visit, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Professor Philip Alston, will conduct a country visit to the United States in December 2017. In response to his call for input, CCSI sent a submission focused the United States’ role in the international investment regime, and the United States’ international investment agreements (IIAs), noting that the IIAs to which the US is a party raise tensions, and can potentially create conflicts, with the US’s human rights obligations, including those that apply extraterritorially, and exacerbate conditions of poverty, extreme poverty and inequality.

At The Intersection Of Land Grievances And Legal Liability: The Need To Reconsider Contract Rights And Expectations At The Supranational Level, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Lise Johnson, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

This Article explores how host governments’ legal obligations can affect or constrain their ability to address “land grievances,” which are defined as concerns raised by local individuals or communities in response to negative impacts of land-based investments. Obligations under international investment law, international human rights law, and investor-state contracts can be in tension or can directly conflict with one another, creating complexity for governments seeking to respond to land grievances. To explore the legal considerations that governments must navigate in this context, this Article considers several options that governments could pursue to respond to land grievances. In all of the …

Update: International Human Rights, James Hart Mr.

Law Librarian Articles and Other Publications

This guide explains the procedures of the major international human rights systems because it is procedures that create the need to record or communicate. In other words, documents emanate from critical junctures in a process. The guide does not cover the content of the human rights themselves. Nor does it explicate the websites that hold the documents, but it will give you the information you will need to understand them. The guide will, however, give you URLs. With the information in the guide, you will be able to navigate your way through the websites without detailed directions. The first part …

Due Process Abroad, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

Defining the scope of the Constitution’s application outside U.S. territory is more important than ever. This month the Supreme Court will hear oral argument about whether the Constitution applies when a U.S. officer shoots a Mexican child across the border. Meanwhile the federal courts are scrambling to evaluate the constitutionality of an Executive Order that, among other things, deprives immigrants of their right to reenter the United States. Yet the extraterritorial reach of the Due Process Clause — the broadest constitutional limit on the government’s authority to deprive persons of “life, liberty, and property” — remains obscure. Up to now, …

Trade Strategies Of The Tpp-11 Countries: Asian Regionalism In Turbulent Times, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017 hasprompted the remaining countries to pursue alternative trade strategies. Australia andJapan have pushed for effectuating the TPP without US participation. The currentefforts focus on seeking consensus on the scope of suspensions over the originalagreement. The TPP-11 countries expect to reach an agreement in principle during theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November 2017. Critical factors that willinfluence the TPP also include negotiations for the 16-country RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership and China’s new trade initiatives. Hence, EUpolicy on trade and investment agreements with the Asia-Pacific ought to consider thechanging dynamics of …

Trade Strategies Of The Tpp-11 Countries: Asian Regionalism In Turbulent Times, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Pacific Partnership (TPP) in January 2017 hasprompted the remaining countries to pursue alternative trade strategies. Australia andJapan have pushed for effectuating the TPP without US participation. The currentefforts focus on seeking consensus on the scope of suspensions over the originalagreement. The TPP-11 countries expect to reach an agreement in principle during theAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in November 2017. Critical factors that willinfluence the TPP also include negotiations for the 16-country RegionalComprehensive Economic Partnership and China’s new trade initiatives. Hence, EUpolicy on trade and investment agreements with the Asia-Pacific ought to consider thechanging dynamics of …

The Syrian Refugee Crisis And The European Union: A Case Study Of Germany And Hungary, Simone-Ariane Schelb

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Common European Asylum System. It evaluates the extent to which the European Union was able to implement a common asylum system, identifies discrepancies between different European countries, primarily Germany and Hungary, and briefly examines the roots of these differences. To this end, the structure of the international refugee protection regime and the German and Hungarian asylum systems are analyzed. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the governments of the two countries perceive the rights of refugees and how their views have affected their handling of the crisis. The case …

Equitable Allocation Of Climate Adaptation Finance - Considering Income Levels Alongside Vulnerability, Patricia Galvao-Ferreira

Law Publications

The 2015 Paris Agreement elevates the goal of climate adaptation to the same level of importance as the goal of climate mitigation, and emphasizes the need to mobilize finance for climate adaptation in developing countries. As of February 2017, however, the financial gap for climate adaptation remained monumental. With the administration of US President Donald Trump threatening to interrupt American financial flows to the climate regime, developing countries are expressing growing concern about the ability of developed country parties to mobilize enough finance to meet the sizeable costs of their climate adaptation needs. In this context, the question of how …

International Investment Law Through The Lens Of Global Justice, Steven Ratner

Law & Economics Working Papers

The last decade has witnessed a series of criticisms from states, NGOs, and scholars of international investment law’s rules and procedures. Running in parallel, and for a longer period, political philosophers have developed theories about what would constitute a just international economic order. Yet international law and philosophy have not directly engaged with one another regarding the justice of international investment law. This article attempts to breach that gap by analyzing the key critiques of investment law from the perspective of theories of global justice. Philosophical approaches are useful for appraising investment law because they offer a rigorous framework for …

To Speak With One Voice: The Political Effects Of Centralizing The International Legal Defense Of The State, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

When a government official defends a case before an international court, whose interest should he/she be representing? In today’s era of expanding international treaties that give standing to individual claimants, international courts review the actions of different government actors through the yardsticks of international law. The state is not unitary; alleged victims can bring international claims against various government entities including the executive, the legislature, the administrative branch, and the judiciary. Yet, the international legal defense of government actions is in the hands of the executive power. This paper focuses on the consequences of this centralization for inter-branch politics. It …

The Impact Of Mandated Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence From India’S Companies Act Of 2013, Dhammika Dharmapala, Vikramaditya Khanna

Law & Economics Working Papers

Firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity has become the subject of a large literature in recent years. This paper analyzes CSR activity using quasi-experimental variation created by Section 135 of India’s Companies Act of 2013, which requires (on a “comply-or-explain” basis) that firms satisfying specific size or profit thresholds spend a minimum of 2% of their net profit on CSR. We examine effects along a number of different dimensions including firm value, CSR spending, and other outcomes, as well as exploring broader theoretical implications. Our analysis uses financial statement and stock price data on Indian firms from the Prowess database, …

China And The Future Of The International Tax Regime, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Haiyan Xu

Law & Economics Working Papers

The International tax regime (ITR) has been transformed after the Great Recession of 2008-2009. The G20/Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project (2013-2015) has fundamentally changed the ITR, giving new life to the single tax principle (income should be taxed once, i.e. no double taxation and no double non taxation).

Reaction to BEPS has varied dramatically between the EU and the US, the two largest markets in the world. In the EU BEPS is taken very seriously, as shown for example by the new Anti Tax Avoidance Directives that implement the single tax …

The Published Works Of Sir Nigel Rodley, James W. Hart

Law Librarian Articles and Other Publications

This work is a comprehensive bibliography of the writings of Sir Nigel Rodley that was compiled for the Urban Morgan Human Rights Conference Honoring Sir Nigel Rodley that was held at the University of Cincinnati College of Law on October 28 and 29, 2017. It lists the books that he was the sole author of, books that he edited either solely or with others, chapters in books edited by others, journal articles, conference papers, book reviews, reports issued as part of his UN work, two manuscripts, introductions, forwards, comments, tributes, and obituaries. It does not list decisions of the UN …

230+ Law And Economics Professors Urge President To Remove Isds From Nafta, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI helped launch a letter signed by over 230 law and economics professors urging President Trump to remove ISDS provisions from NAFTA. As the letter notes, the ISDS mechanism “undermines the important roles of our domestic and democratic institutions, threatens domestic sovereignty, and weakens the rule of law.” The letter builds upon the center’s past work, including a similar letter published last year calling on Congress to reject the Trans Pacific Partnership for its inclusion of ISDS, and broader analyses of both the threat that ISDS poses to domestic US law and of the ISDS provisions that were included in …

Green Foreign Direct Investment In Developing Countries, Lise Johnson

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The message is by now clear: our global economy must be fundamentally reoriented and redeployed in order to achieve the SDGs and the commitments of the Paris Climate Agreement. This requires action by all stakeholders, including non-financial and financial firms, debt and equity investors, government policymakers, and consumers. In terms of the amount of money required, it has been estimated that meeting the SDGs will require $5 to $7 trillion annually, with investment needs for developing countries amounting to roughly $3.3 to $4.5 trillion per year. While a big picture view of and strategic thinking regarding the entire economic ecosystem …

Designing A Legal Regime To Capture Capital Gains Tax On Indirect Transfers Of Mineral And Petroleum Rights: A Practical Guide, Perrine Toledano, John Bush, Jacky Mandelbaum

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

When a local asset (or a right relating to such asset) is sold, a country will generally have jurisdiction to levy a capital gains tax on the sale, both under domestic law and international treaty. This is called taxation of a “direct” transfer of a local asset. However, taxation becomes increasingly complicated when a company located offshore owns the local asset. Further difficulties arise when the local asset is held by a chain of corporations located in tax havens. An “indirect” transfer occurs when the shares of the domestic subsidiary, the shares of the foreign company with a branch in …

India’S Revised Model Bit: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back?, Jesse Coleman, Kanika Gupta

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In December 2015, the Indian government approved the final text of its revised model bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Shortly thereafter, in February 2016, India published a joint interpretative statement to clarify its understanding of certain treaty provisions found in existing Indian treaties. These recent developments in Indian investment treaty policy are products of a multi-year review process ,prompted at least in part by the 2011 finding against India in the White Industries claim - the first such known finding against the state – and by several notices of dispute received following the determination in that case.

The Substitute And Complement Theories Of Judicial Review, David Landau

Scholarly Publications

Constitutional theory has hypothesized two distinct and contradictory ways in which judicial review may interact with external political and social support. One line of scholarship has argued that judicial review and external support are substitutes. Thus, "political safeguard" theorists of American federalism and the separation of powers argue that these constitutional values are enforced through the political branches, making judicial review unnecessary. However, a separate line of work, mostly composed of social scientists examining rights issues, argues that the relationship between courts and outside support is complementary-judges are unlikely to succeed in their projects unless they have sufficient assistance from …

The Hague Working Group On Space Resources: Creating The Legal Building Blocks For A New Industry, Mark J. Sundahl, Chelsey Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Given the inherently international (or more accurately, extranational) nature of asteroid mining, an international discussion has also arisen at the United Nations and other fora. In order to prepare the way for the future regulation of space resource extraction, The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group (Working Group) was created to develop so-called "building blocks" for use in the construction of a future legal framework governing mining activities. This "legal framework" may take the form of a treaty, but it is more likely to be a soft form of international law, such as a U.N. resolution, or a model domestic …

The Bandung Ethic And International Human Rights Praxis: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow, Obiora C. Okafor

Articles & Book Chapters

Between April 18 and 24, 1955, a group of twenty-nine African and Asian states gathered in Bandung, Indonesia, for the very first Afro-Asian summit in recorded human history. Almost every single African and Asian state that was independent at the time was represented at Bandung. It is no wonder then that this moment is widely regarded in the literature as “the foundational moment of the Third World.” Issued on April 24, 1955, the Conference’s Final Communiqué captured what I refer to in this chapter as the Bandung ethic. This conference also inspired a long line of subsequent meetings of the …

Asean And The South China Sea: Approaches To Resolving The Conflict, Jennifer Jie Li

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent years, tensions have escalated between actors in the South China Sea, one of which is the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the region’s primary intergovernmental organization. The purpose of this report is to determine the effectiveness of ASEAN in resolving the South China Sea disputes and to clarify how geopolitical factors have impacted the organization’s actions. Through an analysis of evolving maritime claims and the current state of affairs, this paper suggests that ASEAN must be involved in any attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully. Acknowledging the importance of the diplomatic channels that ASEAN has created to …

Evaluating Frameworks For Multilateral Investor-State Dispute Settlement, Danielle Rosenthal

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Utilizing both empirical studies of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regimes and the accounts of both public and private practitioners of these processes, this study aims to inform public policymakers, multinational corporation leadership, and academic researchers on some of the key issues to consider when developing a multilateral friendly ISDS regime. By analyzing the procedural and functional details of both traditional arbitration (via the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) and investment dispute courts (via those proposed in the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the EU Canada Comprehensive Economic and …

Contemporary Practice Of The United States Relating To International Law, Kristina Daugirdas, Julian Davis Mortenson

Articles

In this section: Congress Enacts Sanctions Legislation Targeting Russia • United States and Qatar Sign Memorandum of Understanding over Terrorism Financing • Trump Reverses Certain Steps Toward Normalizing Relations with Cuba • United States Announces Plans to Withdraw from Paris Agreement on Climate Change • President Trump Issues Trade-Related Executive Orders and Memoranda • United States, Russia, and Jordan Sign Limited Ceasefire for Syria • Trump Administration Recertifies Iranian Compliance with JCPOA Notwithstanding Increasing Concern with Iranian Behavior

A Principled Defence Of The International Human Right To Privacy: A Response To Frédéric Sourgens, Asaf Lubin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Part I offers a brief summary of Sourgens’ key arguments and his legal rationales for them. Part II pushes against the existence of a general privacy principle. This Part challenges both the methodology employed by Sourgens to identify this principle, as well as the practicality of the overall endeavor. Part III makes the case for an extraterritorial right to privacy under both treaty and customary international law. This Part further analyzes recent successes of IHRL in fighting against unwarranted surveillance, and concludes by providing counter-arguments to the concerns raised by Sourgens regarding the effectiveness of the human rights discourse in …

Why A Disability Rights Tribunal Must Be Premised On Therapeutic Jurisprudence Principles, Michael L. Perlin, Mehgan Gallagher

Articles & Chapters

The authors have previously written about the need for a disability rights tribunal in Asia (DRTAP) along with an information center (DRICAP) as part of that tribunal so that litigants can easily access the controlling domestic case law, statutes and regulations of the participating nations.

We believe a successful DRTAP must be premised on therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) principles, and that its creation would be hollow without dedicated and knowledgeable lawyers representing the population in question. In accordance with TJ principles, it must incorporate “voice, validation and voluntary participation” to insure that litigants have a sense of voice or a chance …

Brief For Justice Richard J. Goldstone As Amicus Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Sarah Paoletti

All Faculty Scholarship

Amicus curiae herein argue the present petition for a writ of certiorari should be granted as it rightly questions the very legitimacy of the military commission used to try Petitioner based on a theory of equality. International and comparative law further bolster Petitioner’s argument that the Military Commissions Act’s establishment of a segregated criminal justice system in which only non-citizens are subject to military commission jurisdiction violates the equal rights of Petitioner and all non-citizens subject to its jurisdiction.

Equality is a central principle undergirding human rights law that pre-dates the founding of the United Nations and the drafting of …

Address At The Lincoln Charter Of The Forest Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University: The Charter Of The Forest: Evolving Human Rights In Nature, Nicholas A. Robinson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This conference is a singular event, long over due. It has been 258 years since William Blackstone celebrated “these two sacred charters,”1 Carta de Foresta and Magna Carta, with his celebrated publication of their authentic texts. In 2015, the Great Charter of Liberties enjoyed scholarly, political and popular focus. The companion Forest Charter was and is too much neglected.2 I salute the American Bar Association, and Dan Magraw, for the ABA’s educational focus of the Forest Charter, as well as Magna Carta. Today we restore some balance with this conference’s searching and insightful examination of the Forest Charter’s significance.

Constructing An International Community, Monica Hakimi

Articles

What unites states and other global actors around a shared governance project? How does the group—what I will call an “international community”—coalesce and stay engaged in the enterprise? A frequent assumption is that an international community is cemented by its members’ commonalities and depleted by their intractable disagreements. This article critiques that assumption and presents, as an alternative, a theory that accounts for the combined integration and discord that actually characterize most global governance associations. I argue that conflict, especially conflict that manifests in law, is not necessarily corrosive to an international community. To the contrary, it often is a …

Reply On The Work Of International Law, Monica Hakimi

Articles

"In the Article, I distill and then criticize a prominent view about the role of international law in the global order. The view—what I call the “cooperation thesis”—is that international law serves to foster a particular kind of cooperation, specifically to help the participants achieve their common aims and curb their disputes. Lawyers who subscribe to this view of course appreciate that international law is, like all law, often contentious in operation. But they posit that, unless such conflict is overcome, it detracts from cooperation and evinces the limits of international law. That view is wrong. It incorrectly assumes that …